Francis Weed. A successful middle-aged family man who lives in a suburban town named

Shady Hill. Francis unknowingly is going through a midlife crisis. He lives in a community, which is flooded with characters that are drenched with inescapable conformity. These characters referred to as minor or secondary characters enlighten us the reader and Francis Weed by interacting with him. They are very crucial to the storyline, they illuminated the different aspects of him and helped Francis's attempt at "finding himself".

The family dog Jupiter does not appear or is talked about frequently in this story, but yet his role is important because Jupiter symbolizes the opposite of conformity and a carefree spirit that Francis Weed wants to be. Jupiter was a rebel; he didn't obey any rules, in fact spent more time breaking them. "Jupiter went where he pleased, ransacking wastebaskets, clotheslines, garbage pails, and shoe bags. He broke up garden parties and tennis matches..."(14). Jupiter's actions show that neither does he care or put effort in pleasing or impressing anyone, it seems what concerns him is his happiness. Even though these are sel

However, the character Anne Murchison affects Francis the most, She represents to him youth that he has lost and an escape from the conformist society he lives in. When he met Anne (the new babysitter) for the first time, he was overwhelmed by her youthful beauty and "... experienced in his consciousness that moment when music breaks glass and felt a pang of recognition as strange, deep and wonderful as anything in his life"(28). Anne's striking looks made him feel like a young man full of passion, which he desperately wanted to ignite. She was different from everyone else that he would interact with normally, she came from a lower class broken home and lived "out of his own neighbourhood, across the tracks"(29), which made her forbidden to him, not just by her age and his marriage valves to Julia (Francis's wife) but also by a social difference. All these factors made Anne only more attractive to Francis, leading to his infatuation with her and an attempt at expressing his inner feelings, thoughts and desires to the people around even if it made him a rebel. Anne's role is significant because her interactions with him enlightened and made Francis acknowledge the things around him that he felt were harmful physically or emotionally.

As you can see each and every secondary character that John Cheever has planted in this story has a

Some topics in this essay:
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